What's on your mind today? What have you read? Heard?

I don't know about you but I think diabetes is simply awful! My father has it and I see him suffer with it daily. He is 78 now.

Look at this:

from the New York Times:

An estimated 800,000 adult New Yorkers - more than one in every eight - now have diabetes, and city health officials describe the problem as a bona fide epidemic. Diabetes is the only major disease in the city that is growing, both in the number of new cases and the number of people it kills.

I have a brother who lives in Iraq, He says it is 133-145 degrees in the summertime. Does anyone out there come from Iraq?

Those temps seem a bit excessive, Nancyann.

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/MichaelLevin.shtml

Hope your brother is safe and well.

He says that there is no humidity there though! Only heat and sand flees that get under one's skin! We send him things to help him out! He has been ther for 4 years now and loves his work!

Nancyann

Psychotherapy on the Road to ... Where?
Steve Brodner


By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: December 27, 2005

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The small car careered toward a pile of barrels labeled "Danger TNT," then turned sharply, ramming through a mock brick wall and into a dark tunnel. A light appeared ahead, coming fast and head-on. A locomotive whistled.

"Uh-oh," said one of the passengers, Dr. Martin Seligman, a psychologist and a pioneer in the study of positive emotions.

But in a moment, the car scudded safely under the light, out through the swinging doors of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and into the warm, clear light that seemed to radiate from the Southern California pavement.

"Well," Dr. Seligman said. "I don't know that I expected to be doing that."

One of several prominent therapists who agreed to visit Disneyland at the invitation of this reporter, Dr. Seligman was here in mid-December for a conference on the state of psychotherapy, its current challenges and its future. And a wild ride it was.

Because it was clear at this landmark meeting that, although the participants agreed it was a time for bold action, psychotherapists were deeply divided over whether that action should be guided by the cool logic of science or a spirit of humanistic activism. The answer will determine not only what psychotherapy means, many experts said, but its place in the 21st century.

"In the 1960's and 1970's, we had these characters like Carl Rogers, Minuchin, Frankl; psychotherapy felt like a social movement, and you just wanted to be a part of it," said Dr. Jeffrey Zeig, a psychologist who heads the Milton H. Erickson Foundation, which every five years since 1980 has sponsored the conference in honor of Dr. Erickson, a pioneer in the use of hypnosis and brief therapy techniques.

"Now," Dr. Zeig continued, "well, therapists are becoming more like technicians, and we're trying to find the common denominator from the different schools and methods to see what works best, and where to go from here."

The meeting brought together some 9,000 psychologists, social workers and students, along with many of the world's most celebrated living therapists, among them the psychoanalyst Dr. Otto Kernberg, the Hungarian-born psychiatrist and skeptic Dr. Thomas Szasz, and Dr. Albert Bandura, the pioneer in self-directed behavior change.

"This is like a rock concert for most of us," said Peggy Fitzgerald, 56, a social worker and teacher from Sacramento, holding up a program covered in autographs. Ms. Fitzgerald said she attended war protests during the 1960's, and "this has some of that same feeling."

Calls to arms rang through several conference halls. In the opening convocation, Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams - the charismatic therapist played on screen by Robin Williams - displayed on a giant projection screen photos from around the world of burned children, starving children, diseased children, some lying in their own filth.

He called for a "last stand of loving care" to prevail over the misery in the world, its wars and "our fascistic government." Overcome by his own message, Dr. Adams eventually fell to the floor of the stage in tears.

Many in the audience of thousands were deeply moved; many others were bewildered. Some left the arena.

At the conference, many said they found it heartening that psychotherapy was finding some scientific support.

For example, cognitive therapy, in which people learn practical thought-management techniques to dispel self-defeating assumptions and soothe anxieties, has proved itself in many studies.

The therapy, some participants said, has even attracted the attention of the Nobel Committee. The two men who developed it, Dr. Albert Ellis, a psychologist in New York, and Dr. Aaron Beck, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania, brought crowds to their feet.

A frequent theme of the meeting was that therapists could not only relieve anxieties and despair but help clients realize a truly fulfilling life - an idea based on emerging research.

In his talk, Dr. Seligman spelled out the principles of this vision, called positive psychology. By learning to express gratitude, to savor the day's pleasures and to nurture native strengths, a people can become more absorbed in their daily lives and satisfied with them, his research has suggested.

A just-completed study at the University of Pennsylvania found that these techniques relieved the symptoms of depression better than other widely applied therapies, Dr. Seligman told the audience.

"The zeit is really geisting on this idea right now," said Dr. Seligman, who has consulted with the military on how to incorporate his methods.
Psychotherapy on the Road to ... Where?



Published: December 27, 2005

(Page 2 of 2)

Dr. Dan Siegel, a child psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles, was one of several speakers to emphasize how psychotherapy changes the wiring of the brain. For example, he said, brain imaging findings suggest that secure social interactions foster the integration of disparate parts of the brain.

"When I'm telling you my feelings, discussing memories, in this close relationship, I'm achieving better neurological integration," Dr. Siegel said. "I'm repairing the connections in the brain."

Many therapists at the conference said that if the field did not incorporate more scientifically testable principles, its future was bleak.

Using vague, unstandardized methods to assist troubled clients "should be prosecutable" in some cases, said Dr. Marsha Linehan of the University of Washington, who has developed a well-studied method of treating suicidal patients.

Yet it was also apparent in several demonstrations of the spellbinding thing itself - artful psychotherapy - that some things will be difficult, if not impossible, to standardize.

Dr. Donald Meichenbaum, research director of the Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment in Miami, showed a film of the first session he conducted with a woman who was suicidal months after witnessing her boyfriend die in a traffic accident. After gently prompting her to talk about the accident, Dr. Meichenbaum then zeroed in on something he had noticed when the woman entered his office: she was clutching a cassette tape.

He asked about the tape and learned that it was a recording of her late boyfriend's voice, expressing love for her. "I play it over and over, and it makes me so depressed," said the woman, in a tiny voice.

And here Dr. Meichenbaum stopped the film and addressed the audience.

"The tape!" he said. "When during the session do you go for the cassette tape? What do you do with the tape?"

For several long moments not a creature stirred, not even a laptop mouse. This community of therapists was now trying to save a soul, a person who was alone and did not want to live. What to do with the tape?

"Consider between now and the next time I see you, in two days, consider whether you would be willing to play the tape," Dr. Meichenbaum went on to say he had told the woman. "I would be privileged and honored" to hear it.

"Why?" he now asked, turning to the audience. "Because it not only increases the likelihood she'll return but empowers her to come back" and take an active role in therapy. Which is exactly what she did, he said.

"Now, is any research study ever going to tell you exactly the right thing to do when your client comes in with a tape of her dead lover's voice?" Dr. Meichenbaum asked.

Most of the audience of more than 1,000 people wandered out of the talk wide-eyed. One, Terrina Picarello, 40, a marriage and family therapist from Greensboro, N.C., said, "That is what you come for: inspiration."

Ms. Picarello said that the conference was well worth the money she spent, more than $800 in fees and travel, and the week she had taken off to attend, even though she found some of the presentations on marriage counseling disappointing.

"Way too much talking by the therapist, I thought," she said, after one of them. "It seemed so old-fashioned, like it was drawn from another era."

And there was the rub. As psychotherapy struggles to define itself for an age of podcasts and terror alerts, it will need ideas, thinkers, leaders. Yet the luminaries here, many of whom rose to prominence three decades ago, were making their way off the stage. And it was not clear who, or what, would take their place.

Across the street at Disneyland, where just about any metaphor is available for the taking, Dr. Siegel was working out the meaning of the park for himself. A native of Los Angeles, he has many memories of visiting as a child, perhaps nowhere more so than the circular drive in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

"The circle of choice," he said, looking around. "This is where you decide, where you think about your mood and which way you want to go - to Frontierland, Tomorrowland."

By all appearances in Anaheim, the field of psychotherapy has arrived at the circle of choice.

The question is, How to get to Tomorrowland?

Just popping in briefly to jot down what just must be the best quote of today's news ... you dont find 'em like that much anymore!



wowee! ... link ... I hadnt even heard of the guy until last week... ;-)

Thank you so much for posting! And the link was so interesting! Thanks.

Nancyann

Last night, I was reading a National Geographic that is all about Africa.
Everything from economics, to wild life, to religion are in this issue.

So are the world wide statistics on AIDS.
It kept me awake last night. I had no idea how bad the aids epidemic was in Africa.
I also didnt know that africa has MOST of the worlds infected population...!

Some of the statistics that were printed in the magazine -

1) Number of people world wide with HIV- 40 MILLION
Out of those 40 million, 26 MILLION live in sub-saharan Africa.

2) % of HIV-positive people ages 15-49 world wide 1.1%. percentage of that 1.1% that live in Sub-Saharan africa ? 8%.

3) Number of children world wide who are orphaned by AIDS world wide ( as of 2003) 15MILLION.
12.3 MILLION of those children live in Africa.


I could go on.. but I think my point is made.

I have always heard that africas population was over run with aids. I dont know why that never sunk in until I read this article.
I stayed awake until almost 1 am with pictures flashing through my mind accompanied with thousands of questions.
how can anyone NOT know how to save themselves from aids? Are they really that poor in africa where they can not afford a condom? Are they TAUGHT about condoms? Aids for that matter?? OR do they just watch thier family die not knowing what it is that is killing thier loved ones?
What is the world doing as a community to help these people? Do they have medicine available?
Does anyone give a **** enough to go help?

I was picturing my own daughter stricken with aids from a medical procedure...
My husband with it
Myself with it.. and it hurt. I cant imagine being in a neighborhood where EVERYONE you know is related to someone who has died of aids.

I cant imagine living in a country where aids is just as popular as a motor vehicle... meaning.. almost everyone could have it.

I dont know what it is like to live in a country where we are not as privilidged or sheltered and aids victims die on street corners. I guess for that, in a selfish way, I should be greatful.. but Im not.


yeah.. this article kept me awake for a while.
It was printed in the Sept 2005 issue of National Geographic.


( hehe.. sorry for rambling.. )

Thank you so much for posting and for all of your ideas and opinions about AIDS! Yes it is so awful. I knew a man who lived in Africa who moved from Africa and lived next door to me for years her in the Boston area. He said that almost everyone he knew had it and dies from it and it was what people died from in Africa.

I remember hearing of some Stars dedicating their lives and mmoney to that cause, I just don't remember who! I heard of them on Regis and Kelly at 9 A.M. EST!

Yes just what can we so as one solitary person?

Nancyann

I saw a picture in the paper of new Bolivian president Evo Morales visiting Spanish President Zapatero. It spoke volumes.

Though both call themselves Socialists, they are of very different brands ... Zapatero a European social-democrat, Morales a radical leader of indigenous people, who propagates the value of coca and wants to nationalise industries.

Cant quite find the photo back, but these are enough like it:

In the same paper (it was an oldie, 5 January), I also read this:


What struck me about that:

- The Taliban behaving as a kind of religious Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot, Cambodia)

- Things are actually getting worse

unbelievable! Thanks for posting!

Nancyann

I used to buy fruit there at times! It was a nice store!

Nancyann

An American success story unravels
Debt, competition doom grocer's 3 Hub stores
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | January 15, 2006

Until last month Andre Medina lived an American success story: an immigrant who built an unlikely empire of supermarkets by opening stores in Boston neighborhoods other businesses avoided and hiring former convicts when nobody else would.


Over 13 years, the Americas' Food Basket grocery business grew to three stores by catering to low-income residents and immigrants, selling them everything from yucca to pig ears at cut-rate prices. In the process, it made 43-year-old Medina the city's biggest Latino business owner and the star of a Liberty Mutual commercial. The Cuban entrepreneur's chain was so coveted -- his shops revitalized blocks -- that the cities of Brockton and Lowell courted him to open locations there.

''He opened doors for me that no one else would," said Felix Fresneda, a Cuban immigrant who spent 15 years in jail for drug-related crimes and lived in a halfway house when Medina hired him as a painter. Fresneda worked his way up to store supervisor and became a homeowner, at Medina's encouragement.

''He's like my brother, my father. The only person in this country that trusts me," Fresneda said. ''He's my everything."

But no matter how well-intentioned Medina was, no matter how much the City of Boston invested -- all told $1.5 million -- and no matter how much praise was heaped on the grocery chain, one bad decision led to another, seemingly destroying a business overnight.

The end came on Christmas Eve. Medina owed $3.8 million to vendors and creditors as sales stumbled. He couldn't pay rent and soon he knew he wouldn't be able to make payroll. That night Medina permanently closed all three grocery stores. He didn't inform his 120 employees until two days later, not wanting to ruin Christmas for them.

''I am ashamed this has happened," Medina said. ''A lot of damage has been done."

Failure came not only by Medina's hands. The grocery landscape changed dramatically from the time he opened his first store in Dorchester's Uphams Corner in 1992. Americas' Food Basket's buying power for brands like Kraft and Nabisco shrunk as chains like Stop & Shop and Shaw's grew bigger. His venture's grip on a niche market loosened as Asian grocer Super 88 expanded and mainstream stores beefed up ethnic food offerings.

What ultimately led to the demise of his business, Medina and his investors say, was his year-old Fields Corner store in Dorchester, which he opened with intense community support. Even as the supermarket hemorrhaged money, the city and other groups marshaled $370,000 in loans in August to keep it afloat.

''We had every reason to have faith in this guy. Andre goes places other people won't go," said Jeanne DuBois, executive director of Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp., which loaned him $120,000 last summer. ''Looking back, I wish we hadn't helped keep open that last store."Continued...

how true, i remember watching scenes of the bosnian war on tv with my father, he suffered from heart problems and a few years later would pass away, as we watched the nightly news we saw people, some his age some older living in apartments, where the front of the building was gone, so one whole side was open to the elements, scrounging for wood to keep warm and trying to find and purchase what little food remained, one night he turned to me and said, i guess we don't reflect enough on how well we have it here in canada, i've got a good home, health care, enough food, hell more than enough, given my health problems, i'd never survive having to live in conditions like that,

his comment changed a lot about how i view the world i live in

How true! Thanks for posting! Thanks so much! It was so nice!

Nancyann

This is quite the article about the avian flu pandemic!

from the New York Times


United States Pledges $334 Million to Global Fight Against Avian Influenza

Ambassador Nancy Powell, the State Department's Senior Coordinator for Avian Influenza and Infectious Diseases announced the United States' pledge of approximately $334 million to support the global campaign against avian influenza and a potential influenza pandemic. Ambassador Powell made the announcement at the International Pledging Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza in Beijing, China on January 17-18, 2006.

The U.S. funds will be largely in the form of grants and technical assistance to countries threatened by the virus. They will be used to assist those countries in a variety of ways, including to develop and exercise national preparedness plans, to improve surveillance and response systems, to monitor and evaluate the use and distribution of animal vaccine, to produce and test vaccines for humans, to train local rapid-response teams and medical personnel, and to support communications and public awareness campaigns to limit practices that contribute to the spread of the avian influenza virus. Portions of the pledged U.S. funds will also be used for international research activities and to support the influenza-related work of international technical agencies, private-sector partners, and non-governmental organizations.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last September, President George W. Bush announced the formation of an "International Partnership" to combat avian influenza and to deal with the threat of a possible human pandemic. The President said the global community has "a moral duty to protect our citizens, and heal the sick, and comfort the afflicted".

According conference officials, the combined total of pledges from all donor countries and organizations amounted to $1.9 billion. The United States' pledge represented the largest national contribution to the global campaign against the virus.

Conferees also discussed the importance of strong programs at the individual county level to combat the virus, the need for transparency in sharing information about outbreaks, and a "financing framework" proposed by the World Bank as a means of tracking coordinated donor contributions.

2006/52
Released on January 18, 2006

Information about the last pandemic:

Stories from the Last Pandemic

Every once in a while I'll post one of these. Just in case it might be useful someday...

From Legacy: History of Nursing Education at the University of British Columbia, 1919-1994

Book by Ethel Warbinek, Glennis Zilm; University of British Columbia Press, 1994

All these factors contributed to the demands in B.C. for a university-based nursing education program. As well, the activities of nurses in World War I and in the care of the Spanish flu victims in the world-wide epidemic of 1918- 1919 imparted a glorification of nurses; this was among influences that led to the opening of the Department of Nursing at UBC. Nurses had served magnificently in field hospitals, often near the front lines, and had become icons to be emulated by women. Even women's fashions were influenced by the shorter, more practical length of the skirts of nurses' uniforms. The influenza epidemic killed more than 50 million people world-wide and 50,000 in Canada and brought home to the public the need for better health care generally. During the height of the epidemic in B.C., the university was closed for five weeks and the auditorium and classrooms turned into wards for flu patients. President Wesbrook and several students died from this virulent flu. Victims generally progressed rapidly to a toxic pneumonia with severe nosebleeds that required packing. Treatment was symptomatic and good nursing care was essential: tepid sponges for high fevers, mustard plasters for chest congestion, and fluids for dehydration. The dedication of the nurses from the nearby Vancouver General Hospital was duly noted and authorities also awakened to the need for better health education generally, which could be done by public health nurses.

Posted by PSoTD on Tuesday August 30, 2005 at 10:16am

I seem to keep coming back to this thread with rather trivial contributions -- probably because they're the ones that do not fit in any more topic-specific thread of their own.

Today, it's a quote that made me grin. The one thing that one can say about Boris Johnson, former columnist and now a front-bench British Tory politician, is that he is delightfully unconcerned with the image training that makes other politicians sound so bland; he'll still be flippant. Commenting in The Guardian on what have disparagingly been called "Mickey Mouse courses" at university, he proferred:


Heehee